What a Way to Die: 15 Forgotten Losers from the Mid 60s

This week's record of random (Unit 11, Number 66) is "What a Way to Die: 15 Forgotten Losers from the Mid 60s" on the aptly named Satan Records.

Don't get me wrong.  I do enjoy the genre popularly known as "Garage Rock", but what I don't like are the records that sound like every other garage rock record.  Yes, I know, it's not a genre that one expects the world from right?  The sound that is built upon four chords and a drum beat.  However, to me, to end up as a favorite in my music heart, it's got to have an excellent beat and enough melody and changes to actually say something. 

Whenever my husband listens to records at home, it's these types of songs that tend to make the floors shake.  I don't mind, and I even hear a few that stick to me musically.  Just like that, this album has done the same.  Some hits, some misses, and some that are just (sorry) unremarkable to me.

Let's take a look at the tunes included in this compilation:

Side One:

1.) The Pleasure Seekers - What a Way to Die:  So, there's a pic of these women on the back cover.  Not to be one who makes generalized statements, but I'm going to anyway.  Women in bands in the 60's didn't tend to sound like that and look like this:

But, it's the Quatro sisters.  Yep, one part being Suzi Quatro.  Who would later go on to have her fame (Happy Day's-ish that it may have been) looking like this:

2.)  Larry & the Loafers - Let's Go to the Beach

3.)  The Teddy Boys - Don't Mess with Me

4.)  The Grains of Sand - That's When Happiness Began:  Sounds like strains of "I Wanna Be Your Man" by the Stones and "Little Girl" by Syndicate of Sound put in the blender and poured into this tune.

5.)  The Magic Mushroom - I'm Gone: I couldn't help but think of "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the 13th Floor Elevators.  They're not exactly alike, but perhaps it was "inspired" by.

6.)  The Knaves - Leave Me Alone

7.)  The Renegades - 13 Women:  The best part of this song is the organ.  It gives it something different and makes it a little more foreboding. 

Side Two:

1.)  The First Four - Empty Heart

2.)  Richard and the Young Lions - You Can Make It:  I'm just guessing (haha), but this is probably the reason why my husband bought this record.  I know he LOVES "Open Up Your Door", and often talks about when he saw the reformed band when he was back home in New Jersey.  This song is quite good, and very superior to what I have heard on this compilation as of yet.  (Probably why they are the only band on the cover...or maybe it's one of the only bands they could find a picture of?)  I don't know much about Richard and the Young Lions, but their signature seems to be raucous songs with that "build to explode" format that makes a crowd happy.  I can only imagine how much fun it was/is to see them live.

3.)  The Beech-Nuts - My Iconoclastic Life:  The only thing I like about this song is the using the word "Iconoclastic" in the title.



4.)  The Human Beingz - Evil Hearted You:  Everyone knows "Nobody But Me", but this is just an okay cover of a great song.  You can't touch The Yardbirds.

5.)  The Swingin' Machine - Do You Have to Ask?:  You don't have to be the greatest singer in the world to front a garage band, but I don't think they even tried.  The guitar isn't bad, though.

6.)  The Enfields - She Already Has Somebody:  This one is pretty good!  They seem to have thrown enough of a bit of everything in to keep it interesting.  Decent lyrics, mixed with some surf rock, mild psych and melody.

7.)  The Pleasure Seekers - Never Thought You'd Leave Me:  Why do I have a feeling that the makers of this compilation just really, really wanted to put this Pleasure Seekers single that they had on a compilation album?

8.)  Special Extra Bonus Cut:  "...the first known recording of a notorious 60's punk band that everyone seems to love."  Complete with sax. Must be called "Gonna Have a Twist Tonight" or perhaps "Hideaway".  I really don't know who it is.  The singer sort of sounds like Tommy Smothers.  Is it Iggy?  I'm sure John will know...

On to John...

Where did you buy this record and when?
"I got that at Curmudgeon Records in Highland Park, NJ.  Had to be in the late 90's, early 2000's."

Do you own it in any other format?
"No, but I'd like to have it on CD for ease of convenience.  I haven't played it in so long and there's some killer tracks I was hearing while you were listening to it."

What is your over-all impression of this album?
"That's one of the best garage comps I've got!  There's really like one weak track on the end...I think it's the Standells."

Favorite Track?
"The Richard and the Young Lions track.  It's really cool how they put the Harry Harrison thing on the beginning and the end."

How many stars out of five?
"Five out of Five. It's a great comp."

And for my next blog,  the first person to comment with a number from 1 to 16, and another number from 1 to 75, that will be my next randomly selected record from John's vault. :-)





Various Artists - Trans-World Punk Rave-Up: Raving 60's Beat and R&B from All Over, Volume 2

I seemed to have reached the shelves that are mostly compilations lately, but that's not a bad thing. It allows me to hear a lot of different artists that I probably wouldn't have picked up on myself.

This comp is pretty interesting. Since it's bands "from all over", it brings me back to wondering what I've wondered ever since I heard a Japanese group cover, "I Love You" by The Zombies. Why do bands that don't speak English aspire to sing songs in English? Is it just the success factor? Money? Is it due to what's popular at the time? I wonder, because I can't say that I've ever heard an English band try to emulate, say, a band from Denmark. It's a puzzler to me. Granted, there are a lot of languages that are pretty lovely when sung (i.e. French), but I wouldn't think that English would be one of them. It could just be the plain and simple fact that it's were rock 'n roll got to be king.

Anyway, today's album is:



Track Listing:
Side One:
1. T-Boones "King of the Orient: Sounds suspiciously like parts of "Little Green Bag" in my opinion.

2. Blue Stars "I Can Take It"

3. Phantom Brothers "Chicago": Very cool. I love this one. Probably because I do love Chicago, myself. I grew up not too far from there and anything Chicago-ish tends to make me a little nostalgic.

4. I Kings "Trovane Un Altro" The first of a few foreign language tunes on this record. I tend to not flip over things that I can't understand the lyrics to. (This even applies to songs that are in English that just have horrible enunciation.) However, like most of the songs on this comp, the music is really good. I just don't speak Italian...which isn't their fault.

5. Blue Stars "Social End Product" Woo! Great fuzz guitar and angry, yet smart lyrics.

6. Jaguars "It's All Over Now" A live-sounding, diabolical version of The Stones' tune. I lost count at how many lyrics they messed up. lol

7. Les Miserables "Miserablement Votre" Okay, this one sounds really familiar...what does this translate to in English? Cool percussion.

8. Rivals "Got Love If You Want It" Who didn't cover this song in some form or another?

Side Two:

1. Frays "Keep Me Covered"

2. Brand "Zulu Stomp" (Sounds quite familiar...I think John's played this on our show.)

3. Tony Jackson "Fortune Teller" (I think he might have played this one too?) Much more familiar with The Who's version, but this one isn't bad.

4. Bats "Got a Girl"

5. Fab "I Only Gave You Everything" This is pretty fab :-)

6. Teste Dure "Era Un Beatnik" I love the title. lol "Oh yeah!" "Oh si!"

7. David John & the Mood "Pretty Thing

8. Los Slavajes "Soy Asi" No wonder this band is on the cover, this is a great song...and I think I may be able to undertand some of the lyrics...unless I'm way off base (which could be totally possible.) I had Spanish in high school, but that was over ten years ago. However, I think "Soy Asi" means, "That's me"? (I apologise to any Spanish speaking readers. You have my full persmission to totally make fun of me!) He's obviously singing about some of the current popular bands (as evidenced by the riffs interjected throughout the song), and about how he wears his pants and plays a guitar and sings. Yep, that's all I could get out of it, but I still liked it!



So, who are these bands, really? All that is in the liner notes are the locations (countries) these bands are from. I'm sure you (and John) probably all have some trivia about these bands "from all over", so I'll leave all that to you in your comments, if you choose to participate.

Three and a half stars from me.

Y Tu Juan...?

Where did you buy this record and when?
(There's no reciept!)

"I got this with the other volume from Izzy. He ordered it for me. I'm guessing probably between 1999 and 2001."

Do you own it in any other format?

"No, but I have three or five of these songs on CD in other comps."

What is your over-all impression of this album?

"I was hearing it in the other room and it's awesome. It's great euro-beat/garage punk. Think I might have to play it again and pick out some tracks for the show."

Favorite Track?

"Tony Jackson's 'Fortune Teller'. That I Kings song 'cause it sounds like The Kinks."


How many stars out of five?

"Five!"

Various Artists - The British Psychedelic Trip 1965-1970, Vol 4

Psychedelic? Perhaps. Totally psychedelic? Perhaps not.



As I type out this particular blog, I'm almost halfway through the first side of this album and I'm thinking that this isn't your typical "psych comp". I think a lot of these songs are more British Pop, in my humble opinion...if we have to label things.

Nevertheless, this is an EXCELLENT compilation. From the first track, I've really been loving it. This is just the type of music I really enjoy, and it reminds me of the CD comps that John used to send me in the mail when we were first getting to know each other. It's really cool to discover these "new-to-me" bands.

Let's take a look at what's on this compilation:



Side 1:
That's the Way It's Got to Be - The Poets (Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham...we listened to "Loog's" show a lot on Little Steven's Underground Garage satellite radio station while we were drove from NJ back to MI on our vacation. Wow, can that guy ramble! And I thought I was bad...)

I Lied to Auntie May - The Neat Change (Co-writer credits lists a "Frampton"...could it be...?)

Movin' In - Toby Twirl

Glass House Green, Splinter Red - The Kinsman (A perky sounding song that is pretty much about death from what I gathered)

Lazy Day - Tinkerbells Fairydust (Wow...what a name. I know this song by Spanky and Our Gang. This version isn't bad, but I do prefer the former.)

Water Woman - Pacific Drift (This song stands out on this comp because it sounds different than all the others. I'm not too crazy about it, and it's featured twice on this album, of course by different groups. Maybe I'll like the other version better.)

Paper Chase - Love Children (This was great! I love simple pop songs. What does that say about me? :-P)

Whisper Her Name (Maria Laine) - Ice (Love it. Gotta find more of this 'Ice'.)

Peacefully Asleep - Life 'n Soul

Turn to Earth - Al Stewart (And all I knew was "Year of the Cat"...)

Side 2:

Baby Get Your Head Screwed On - Double Feature (This side starts off with songs that are a bit more soulful.)

8 1/2 Hours of Paradise - The Elastic Band (I totally dig this. I love those Brit bands that are obviously influenced by soul & R&B. Anything with an organ!)

Fade Away Maureen - Cherry Smash (So good! And I usually don't like cherry flavored anything. Hehe. Seriously, this is a great song.)

Gotta Wait - The Game

8.35 On the Dot - Peter Lee Stirling (Love the guitar in the beginning...and holy crap! According to the liner notes, Peter Lee Stirling is also known as "Daniel Boone" who does one my favorite cheesy 70's songs that John hates..."Beautiful Sunday"! I had no idea.)

All Our Christmases - The Majority (Interesting. The liner notes say that The Majority covered Ray Davies' "A Little Bit of Sunlight" and "Ring the Bells". That would be interesting to hear. This particular song is credited to "B. R. & M. Gibb". Yes, I do know who that is. It's very BeeGee'esque.)

Requiem - The Chocolate Watchband (Yet another song about death...but not so perky.)

Water Woman - Amazing Friendly Apple (Another great band name. I do like this version just a bit better.)

I'll Be Home (In a Day Or So) - Dream Police (They live inside of my head. They come to me in my bed. Sorry. I'm from Rockford, Illinois. One cannot let a Cheap Trick connection go by without commenting. Anyway, this song has quite the 70's feel to it. It was released in 1970, but oddly enough, I can hear some sort of soft-rock 70's band covering this in a heartbeat.)

Walking Through the Streets of My Mind - The Time Box (Great vibes - literally - and chimes too. I'm going to have to look into this group as well.)

The lesson from all of this? John has a TON of comps. I must pull them out once and awhile to discover more new things. Much like the comps he made for me helped me to delve into The Small Faces, Terry Reid and Love, I know I'll be searching for more by a lot of these bands on this album.

I give it four and a half stars!

John?

Where did you buy this record and when?



August 2, 1989 at Vintage Vinyl, as evidenced by this receipt.

Do you own it in any other format?

"I think I have two of these songs on CDs somewhere..."

What is your over-all impression of this album?

"To be honest, I don't think I've listened to it since I bought it and I'm in the other room listening and I think it's really good. A lot of it doesn't sound like psych, but more like blue-eyed soul music. It's interesting to see a lot of the names in songwriting credits and production. The Neat Change track is written by Alan Bown and Peter Frampton, "Baby Get Your Head Screwed On" is a Cat Stevens song and "Turn To Earth" is a Yardbirds track from their eponymous 1966 album. I remember putting it on a tape for my friend Robert out in Marin County and him remarking that it sounded like Richard Simmons singing!"

Favorite Track?

"Baby Get Your Head Screwed On, definitely. And that Elastic Band track right behind it."

How many stars out of five?

"Five!"